Oil and gas resources in Arctic area can play a substantial role in meeting future global energy demand. Norwegian Sea and North Sea close to Arctic area are promising areas rich in oil/gas reserves. However, the severe environmental conditions in these areas raise challenges to oil/gas exploration and production. In Arctic area, ice flows and harsh weather conditions occur simultaneously or alternatively, creating barriers to the traditional semi-submersible drilling rigs, drilling ships and other floating structures. When facing the ice flows, the semi-submersible drilling rigs and drilling ships have to be removed from the site until the ice is melted and the area is suitable for further operations. This causes large operation-hour loss. Consequently, it extends the exploration period of project and increases the investment.
Furthermore, although the existing drilling rigs and production platforms for harsh environment have favorable motion performance, they are lack of ice resistance capability. Therefore, there is a current demand for a floating platform with ice resistance capability and outstanding motion response in harsh environment.